Halford & Brough in the Morning - Patrik Laine Is A Montreal Canadien

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

In hour one, Jason Brough and guest host Josh Elliott-Wolfe look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they discuss the latest NHL news with EP Rinkside's Sean Shapiro (25:36). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da Binding with two already, and make it another hat-trick. Sixth of his career. I don't want to come back as a 30 goal scorer. You know, I want to come back as a 40-50. Geiner, hits one high, ball, game, over! Go for the thickness, Bruff, thickness, number one. Good morning, Vancouver, 6 a.m. on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday. This is Halford & Brough.

No Halford. It's Josh Elliott-Wolfe here with you. Jason Brough is here, though. Good morning. Good morning. I think we've got a busy show today. Yeah. I think there's some stuff that's going to happen on this show.

Things are currently happening, too. But, Adog, good morning. Good morning. Laddie, good morning. Hello, hello. Halford & Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. Text in 650-650.

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provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feed, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Today on the show, very hockey heavy, for a reason. There are hockey things happening. 630, Sean Shapiro, writer for EP Ringside and also lead goalie scout for Elite Prospects.

He's going to join us originally to talk about Yaroslav Askarov. He requested a tradeout. We'll still talk to him about that, but maybe some other stuff too. Patrick Vlaine and what's going on with the Edmonton Oilers and the offer sheet situation. 7 o'clock, Rick Dollywall, Canucks insider, one half of Donnie and Dolly on Check TV. Does he have scoops for us? He's got something that I think is going to create

maybe not a panic in the market, but certainly curiosity in the market. How's that for a tease? I'm going to tease. That's a tease. A-Dog's already panicking. I a tease? I'm going to tease. That's a tease. A-Dog's already panicking. I'm like, this is going to create chaos for me, isn't it?

I'm here for it, though. I'm here for it. It's August. Let's create some chaos. 730, Bob Stauffer, host of Oilers Now and Oilers Caller commentator. I believe by then we should have the final notice of whether or not the Oilers will have matched the Blues offer sheet. But the latest, Elliott Friedman, and we'll get into it in a moment, Elliott Friedman reporting that it seems like the Oilers will not be matching those offer sheets.

So we will talk to Bob Stauffer about that at 7.30. And then at 8 o'clock, it is Ryan Phillips, BC Lions defensive coordinator and assistant head coach to talk about everything going on with the BC Lions. That's what's happening on the show today. Working in reverse, 8 o'clock, Ryan Phillips, BC Lions defensive coordinator, assistant head coach. 7.30, Bob Stauffer. We'll talk Oilers with him.

7 o'clock, Rick Dollywell. 6.30, Sean Stauffer. We'll talk Oilers with him. 7 o'clock, Rick Dollywall. 6.30, Sean Shapiro. That's what's happening, Maddie. Let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools,

resources, and safety training. Visit bccsa.ca. So we'll start with the latest news. This from Elliot Friedman at 5.13 a.m., almost an hour ago. He said, Still 75 minutes until deadline for matching Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway offer sheets,

but judging from the last week's moves, adding a young defenseman and a young forward, it appears the Oilers will not match and will allow both players to join St. Louis, expecting formal announcements from the teams themselves

sometime this morning. So this is a bit of a curveball to the general consensus, which was that, oh, the Oilers cleared all that cap space, and now they're going to at least be able to match Philip Broberg. They got Pod Coles in from the Canucks, so maybe he can replace Holloway. And now when the Cody CC trade was announced, it was like, well, they're going to match one of them, right? They're going to match one of them.

I mean, why else would they be clearing the cap space? But perhaps they felt that maybe this is something that could be solved longer term. Like we sit there and the Oilers are sitting there going, we don't have to replace Philip Broberg right away. I realize they did get a young defenseman from San Jose. But what they could do now, if this is accurate, is basically say, all right,

Paul Coleson will give you every chance to replace Holloway. Broberg, we might miss you a little bit, but what we can do is head into the season and they would actually be able to head into the season with Evander Kane not on LTIR. Yeah.

So even if he were injured and on IR, they could accrue cap space and eventually add someone at the deadline or mid-season like the Canucks. They added Nikita Zdorov midway through the season. They added Lindholm closer to the deadline. Those are the types of deals that maybe the Oilers are going to be looking to entertain after they've seen what a guy like, say, Pod Colson can do for them. They don't have to solve everything heading into the season. I do think the issue for the Oilers that comes up, though, is that you look at their defense and it's already shaky without,

not that Cody Ceci was a huge piece of it, but he was a piece of it. Philip Broberg was obviously a piece of it last year, too, and into the playoffs. But they were both shaky parts of it. Yes. Broberg had to get into the lineup for, actually it was Day-R-N-A who's with the Canucks now because they needed some puck moving. But I don't know if he,

here's the thing with Broberg. I don't know if they were ever sure that he was going to be like a regular everyday fixture on the team and certainly not, they weren't sure he was going to be a top four guy. Yeah. But then that offer sheet came in at over $4 million and you're like, ugh. He's getting paid like a top four guy.

And the one thing that I always say about offer sheets, and I get pushback all the time. They say, that's part of the CBA. You know, the GMs know that's the deal, is when you kind of put your team in a hard spot like Broberg and Holloway did, even though they had every right to do it, every right to do it,

still pisses off your GM, still pisses off your team, puts the team in a bad spot, and in some ways they may be like, all right, you don't want to be here? Screw you. Bye. You're not that good. You're not that good, Broberg. And even Holloway, there were some good flashes of him in the playoffs.

He's 22 years old. You'd like to keep him. But if they make that decision to go sign with another team, basically saying, I'm willing to go to this team, that creates hard feelings. And the one example I'm willing to go to this team. That creates hard feelings. And the one example I always bring up was Shea Weber when he signed that offer sheet. Yeah, the Preds matched. But as the years went on, the more and more reporting that came out that said the relationship between Shea Weber and the Predators was never the same. And eventually he was traded.

I will say I'm surprised that they didn't match the holloway one more like or either of them to be fair but just because i look at the holloway one and i feel like there's a road to getting more value than a third round pick out of him and even if that's just him being on your team in your bottom six i think that might be better than having sometimes they don't look at it like that yeah they don't look at like it's like asset management isn't necessarily the first thing they look at they look at it being like hey screw you go to st louis but is that the most like effective way to build a team that's supposed to depends it depends depends on your room what if those guys came back in and all of a sudden there was like some unease in the room around them?

Yeah, I guess. And that's something we won't know and we probably will not know because it does seem like they're both going to be playing for the Blues and it looks like the Oilers will be getting a second round pick for Philip Broberg and a third round pick for Dylan Holloway. The other kind of interesting part about that, the Oilers don't have any picks in the first five rounds this year. And for a team that obviously will want to make moves as the season goes on, you don't want to be trading all your future picks to go all in on this year. So that gives you some options. I also just think it's hilarious how this all went out because went down because i mean there were media guys writing and

throwing bouquets of roses at stan bowman for being able to keep broberg and holloway you know and then all of a sudden they're like actually we're not keeping them yeah you know that was everyone was everyone expected when they cleared the cap space, they're like, well, they're at least keeping Broberg. I do, I wonder why they would trade CeCe then. Was it just like they. He's not very good. I know he's not very good, but they seem to like him.

So, I mean, the reason they would trade him is because they could start the season now. Well, first of all, there's still off-season remaining. Yes. There's still other teams that they could work deals with. You know, the Habs and Jackets made a big trade. There's still trades to be done, but what they can do now is not put Evander Kane on LTIR and

accrue cap space. And that's something that, you know, we've talked about here in Vancouver. Can the Canucks afford to go into the season without Pullman on LTIR? And people will say, well, why would you do that? What would be the point? It's hurt.

Put him on LTIR. It's not, you don't accrue cap space then if you've got a player on LTIR. So that gives you more cap space down the line of the tread deadline or midway through the season. And maybe that's something that the Oilers can do now. Definitely. So elsewhere, a big move yesterday, Patrick Laine traded to the Montreal Canadiens along with a 2026 second round pick in exchange for right-handed defenseman Jordan Harris. So

Laine had kind of wanted out for a while the the jackets were working with him to accommodate that obviously he didn't play a lot of last season because he was kind of hurt and then also in the player assistance program kind of doing that with mental health issues and good for him it seems like he's kind of past that he mentioned yesterday he's in a very good headspace but just under a point per game in Columbus has not crossed the 30 goal threshold since 2019 in Winnipeg and now going to Montreal where he's part of a young core there's probably going to be more pressure on him and we'll see kind of what he is. The other part of this, Columbus not retaining any salary too.

Yeah, I was surprised by that. But they sent a second round pick. Surely that's part of it. I'm not sure if this is going to work out for the Habs or not. I have no idea. But I'm glad someone took a swing on Laine. And I'm glad it was a Canadian team too

just because you know we're going to get a lot of coverage. I think he's a compelling figure. And in a market like Montreal, I think that makes him doubly compelling. I read something on sportsnet.ca yesterday about the Habs and the fact that they haven't really had like a big time point getter in a long, long time. The last time they had an 80-point season from a player

was from Alex Kovalev in 2007-08. Think of what the Canucks have had, even though the Canucks haven't won a Stanley Cup. Well, think of the point totals that they've had since 07-08 with the Sedins and Pedersen and JT Miller and Quinn Hughes had more than 80 points for the Canucks. So the Habs were in one of these positions where they needed to take a shot on a guy that had high-end potential.

And that's what they're doing with Patrick Laine. I do hope Laine is ready to play in a market like Montreal. I watched his press conference yesterday and it sounds like he's actually really excited to go to a market where people care about hockey. The expectations are going to be high for this guy. After the Habs, as you mentioned, took on his entire contract, and even though they did get a second round pick from Columbus, he's now going to be judged on that entire contract. We've got a couple of clips to play from the Line A press conference. and the first one um was basically just him talking about where he's at mentally what it's been like to go through the adversity that he's been through yeah i mean yeah it's not a not a

secret that it's been it's been a little tough on on and off the ice lately but i think i've learned um you know how to how do i put this um just learn things about myself how to handle certain situations um you know there's always going to be stuff that's that's happening to you you know a lot of adversity and a lot of good things but kind of kind of how to handle that um i always wasn't the best best at doing that but i feel like now it's how to kind of how to navigate through them how to handle them is is the glass half full or half half empty kind of kind of thing and um you know looking at things and like more positive perspective these days and um i feel like the handling and navigating through tough times is kind of what I've learned mostly about myself these past couple years. So I feel like I'm at a really, really good place and obviously couldn't be excited with the news from today.

So again, I do hope things go well for Lyon A, not because I'm a habs fan or even a patrick line a fan in general and you know i'm indifferent to him if only really i hope he does well because i think it could be an inspiration for some people that are dealing with mental health issues that you can come out of a bad place or a dark place and it does sound like line a was not in a very good place based on another clip that we're going to play and this is just him talking about how when you're not happy when things are going aren't going well for you in your life uh it's hard to perform well at your job yeah i mean i think most importantly it's been um just about patty as a person um more than patty patty the hockey player

obviously when one thing i've noticed is that when you're not enjoying whatever you do you're probably not going to be able to perform and that's kind of where i've been at you know i haven't been enjoying enjoying myself for for a while but now I'm, you know, happier than ever. Off the ice, obviously. And done a lot of work on myself to get me back to this point where I'm actually super excited about playing. Obviously in a new place, with new teammates, in a new place with new teammates when in a new city um so i've yeah i've i've learned a lot of a lot of things over these last couple years and now it's uh now it's a really good time to put

them to test but yeah i'm uh absolutely readier than uh than ever so so obviously a lot of the focus uh in the wake of this trade has been on the montreal canadians and whether or not line a is going to be a success there but i think it's equally interesting for the Blue Jackets because they really needed to make this deal what a nightmare they had last season which started with the whole Mike Babcock fiasco and included the Patrick Laine situation and included oh yeah a lot of losing now they've got a new GM, a new coach, a new veteran center and leader in Sean Monaghan. And they were able to move on from a guy who

didn't want to be there anymore. And they were able to pretty much like cut strings entirely. Just be like, all right, see you, Patrick. And good luck. And Don Waddell told The Athletic, and this was an interview he did with Aaron Port's line of The Athletic. We've had Port Sion lots of times on this show.

And Waddell told him it solves what potentially could have been an issue, knowing that the player didn't want to be here, and his teammates knew that too. I don't know how it would have gone if he had to come to training camp, which brings me back to the Oilers situation. When these guys sign these offer sheets, I think it's just something that we need to talk about more when it happens, what it does to not only the room, but the organization.

Imagine you're Stan Bowman. You just took that job, and then these guys put you in that situation. Imagine if you're Jeff Jackson, you're the CEO, and you're trying to put together a team for the future with a chance to win a Stanley Cup. You nearly just did it, and you got to get deals done for Dreisaitl, McDavid, again in a few years,

and also you got to get a deal done for Evan Bouchard. And then these guys who are not they're not core players true and they're like combined how many millions of dollars do you think that offer sheet costs them three million yeah three million dollars right in in in value that they didn't expect or cap space that they didn't expect to have to find. And they were already in a cap crunch, right? You can already say, and these guys put you in that situation. Would you not be tempted if you put yourself in the shoes of Jeff Jackson and Stan Bowman to be like, screw you guys. I'd be tempted, but I do think that in the majority of situations,

I just assume that NHL GMs and front offices are just going to be cowards. And they're going to match it. And they're going to look at it and be like, hey, they're putting us in a tough situation, and it sucks that we're in this situation, but we'll figure a way out of it. And they're young players. We want to keep them.

So I kind of give credit to the Oilers for being like, yeah, go ahead. Go to St. Louis. We'll figure it out. I don't know if you should give too much credit because they allowed themselves to get into this situation but at the same time like it's I don't know you adapt to it right I I still I I wonder like how it's tough because I don't want to say how big of a loss this is going to be because I don't think it's going to be that big of a loss for the oilers but that being said like you were a team that was in a situation where you are probably the best team in the league on paper yeah i think and so when you're losing a

couple pieces that were part of that that doesn't knock you down a lot but it can be difficult to go out and find pieces to fill that role and i would you rather have broberg and holloway at those inflated cap hits or would you rather have the picks in the cap space i'd rather have holloway yeah but i wouldn't have signed broberg to them because i think broberg is getting wildly overrated right now we got a text in here uh maybe you're right jason but i think it's more comparable if those guys were at least getting offered contracts in the same ballpark. But those were massive home run contracts, and I bet every player in the league would sign it with that much unexpected income. I'm not blaming the players here.

I'm not blaming the players. I'm just saying, if I was the Edmonton Oilers, I'd be like, this isn't a team team friendly move that you guys are making here Broberg has wanted out in the past too. Yeah I mean for him he hasn't been playing a lot No he hasn't been in the NHL a lot and look he had to, he didn't play

all the games in the playoffs they realized that they needed to bring him in at one point because their puck moving ability wasn't good enough and they were getting killed on the four check so they brought out day rna who's he's a big dude um and you're gonna see that with the canucks but he doesn't move the puck like broberg and they put broberg in there and and it helped them now are you willing to pay four million dollars a season for that guy well you might if you think that he's got the potential

to turn into something much better, and he might do that. Obviously, the St. Louis Blues feel that he does, and they feel that Dylan Holloway has a lot of potential as well. But Broberg, I think, is their real big bet. And I don't know if it's going to work out for the Blues, to be perfectly honest with you the latest from elliot friedman uh minutes ago both philip broberg and dylan holloway have been informed that they are st louis blues the oilers will not match

one thing that elliot believes is key here edmonton wants flexibility to add in season so the thing that again it kind of led everyone to assume that the Oilers were at least going to match one of these was the Cody Cece trade to San Jose because just timing wise like I can get it if you move Cody Cece at any point during the offseason he's not a very good defenseman getting overpaid get him off the books if you can but the timing of it obviously led people to think that there was going to be a match of some of some sort here i wonder if getting put in the situation led the oilers to be like hey is there a creative way we can totally head into this and we don't have to solve it in a week

we don't have to solve all this thing in a week and i know someone texted into the dumb bar lumber text line and said uh i don't know what accruing cap space means, but, well, Google it. It's hard to explain. Basically, as the season goes on, if you're under LTIR... Or if you're under the cap. Under the cap without LTIR, you gain a little bit of cap space

as the season goes on. The more cap space you have... You gain the space that you're not using. Yeah. The more space you have, the more space you gain, too. So the Columbus Blue Jackets, for example, will have the ability to add $300 million worth of players at the trade deadline. And by the way, I do think that's an interesting aspect of the line-A deal because the Blue Jackets now have a ton of cap space.

I think only Anaheim and Calgary have more than Columbus. So Portsline wrote in his athletics story that as soon as the deal went down, Don Waddell got a couple of calls from GMs around the league that were looking to shed salary and going, hey, you just lost this guy. Is there something that you'd want to add now? Because you do have this cap space. And I do think that while there might not be pressure in Columbus to, like,

make the playoffs and win the Stanley Cup, they have to be better. And even though line A was not a factor for them last season, certainly not in a positive way for the team, they are losing a significant amount of potential goal scoring there. They might want to do something about that because they got some good young players and you don't want to keep losing over and over. That's what happened.

It is Halford and Brough. Jam Pro, the leaders in commercial cleaning and janitorial. If your workplace demands a clean environment, contact Jam Pro for a free, no obligation quote. Visit jampro.ca. On the other side, Sean Shapiro,

writer for EP Rinkside. We're going to talk about the line A trade, maybe touch on the Euler stuff and then other storylines going on around the NHL as well. This is Halpern and Brough on Sportsnet 650. 631.

Halpern and Brough. Josh Elliott-Wolfe filling in for Mike Halpern. He's back midweek, by the way. Jason Brough's still here. And then I guess you guys are just here for like forever. Tough break. Tough break.

Tough break talking about sports for a living for three hours out of the day. Got a feel for those guys. 650-650, Dunbar Lumber Tax Line. You can get your text in get your what we learns in as well how from the rough is brought to you by the delari family of honda dealers experience the delari difference today visit your nearest delari honda dealer today we go to the phone lines where it is sean shapiro associate editor for ep ringside and lead goalie scout for elite prospects really appreciate you taking the

time sean i wanted to get your instant reaction and maybe whether or not you're surprised that the oilers did not match the offer sheets to philip roberg and dylan holloway uh i am not surprised based off of kind of where it all i'm surprised maybe i guess maybe i'm slightly surprised they didn't get it done for Holloway. Just my instant reaction on that just because I thought maybe they would make that work. But the money for Broberg was, to me, he was gone the minute it happened.

And so maybe slightly surprised that they didn't match for both. But I had a feeling Broberg was gone from the minute that was signed. But we'll put it in minor surprise for Holloway that they didn't match him. We'll put it that way. So where does this leave the Oilers? I mean, obviously, they made a bunch of the moves to kind of get things going,

to try to pivot and get all this done. I think the big thing with this was, I can't remember who pointed it out first, but when they, when they, when they signed that, if, if the Oilers matched, right, both guys would basically be effectively locked in for at least a year, they couldn't trade them and everything like that. And so I think the Oilers are in a spot where they at least still have some flexibility and they've made some of those moves in the past couple of days, trading CC, stuff like that.

So I think they still have some of the flexibility they lost. And by the way, I think it was a perfect crime by St. Louis because it made everything last week a lot more fun for all of us. And so I'm happy with that. I'd like to see more of this. Yeah. I mean, we love the drama as well, especially when it puts a team like the Oilers in a tough spot. But we all know, you know, like let's not celebrate quite yet

if you're the St. Louis Blues because Broberg and Holloway have to pan out for those guys. And I'm looking at the Blues blue line, and it's just like a weird mix of players. You know, they've got, I guess, Torry krug is still there justin falk did they sign ryan suiter as well like they've got a weird colton perico still there i'm just wondering how it's all gonna fit together in st louis yeah it's kind of there's like especially on defense right where it's like are you i mean because i think uh yeah, I think Nick Letty's still there, too.

Right, right. You have, like, it's so, you have, I mean, it's kind of just a kind of an island of misfit toys when it comes to the blue line. I just laugh at Suter being there because I think he's now, he's pretty close to completing the mission of playing for every team in the Central at some point. So maybe he gets traded at some point so that that opens up and he can continue that mission. I don't know. But, yeah, it's a weird, like, it's a really weird team, the Blues are. And maybe at the same time, like, it's a perfect time to be weird

because at least it makes them semi-interesting because otherwise i don't really know what else when else will we talk about the blues the blue line for the blues is also like completely different than it was when they won the cup and yeah i'm just talking about you know obviously things happen the blues cup was a few years ago now but that blues blue line was kind of known as like the big tough blue line and and the blues really out bruised the bruins in that stanley cup final and now you look at it and you're kind of like it's not really an intimidating blue line i don't think broberg makes it any more intimidating no no no it's it's kind of like it's a bunch of you got a couple guys who were tough when they had someone stuff

when they had like a Petrangelo standing next to them like for example like a Pareko right like Pareko's a really good player but he's not really he's just big and he was always kind of and we played with a meaner guy or a more physical guy like he also teamed to dial it up and

like I don't know him and Pareko and Broberg are both kind of similar to me in that realm where they're both like you could look at them as a coach and like oh i could have a big tough blue line with that guy but neither of them really have that kind of attitude about them that the blues used to have when they won that cup so that's it's it's kind of a classic example of like there is a it's not just size that makes you tough there is a mentality to it right so couldn't agree more with that there's an attitude on the team that you have and i just wonder if they're gonna if they're gonna change that a little bit now that craig berube isn't the head coach anymore yeah be interesting to see where that goes because that

was i mean they kind of and now they were kind of teetering down the slope before Berube was gone but right but that was the whole thing when Berube came in and they won that cup and geez I mean that was so much longer now than I've been I like to admit when you think about four or five 2019 right but that was that team was they got after you, and they made life a living hell under Berube during that era. And nothing really about that team anymore is even mildly annoying anymore. No, I fully agree with you. The other bit of big news from yesterday was Patrick Laine

getting traded to the Montreal Canadiens and we were saying earlier in the show like we're glad it happened because it'll be interesting to see and I don't think anyone wanted to see Patrick Laine have to go to training camp in Columbus because the Blue Jackets couldn't move him um who do you think won the trade between the Montreal Canadiens and the Columbus Blue Jackets? Is it fair if I say I think both kind of got positives out of it? We'll allow it. It's early in the morning. We'll allow that. Yeah, yeah. Because Columbus got out of a contract that I would have been, they got out of a contract without any retention at all. And I think that's something that was,

that is something that I would not have expected. So I got to give Columbus credit for that. And then the Montreal, I know it's a big cap hit for Lion-A for a couple of years, but at the end of the day with where that team is and where you're kind of trying to build and everything if it works out it's great if it doesn't i don't really feel like there's much of an issue it's just kind of like so i i think both teams actually ended up in a pretty good spot for it um i think it's, but I'll give a slight, slight nod

obviously to Montreal because if Lainey does anything and on top of that they picked up, they got a pick to take him as well. In addition, obviously another piece went back, but if Lainey does anything that looks anything like early career Lainey at all, it's a win for Montreal. So I'll

go with that. But I don't think Columbus is I think Columbus was in that spot where they all it's it's a win for montreal so i'll go with that but i don't think columbus is i think columbus was in that spot where they they found an escape hatch i didn't think they would have been able to find as effectively as they did hey sean we got some trivia for you um that we already brought up earlier in the show um okay who was the last montreal canadians player to score more than 80 points in a season oh geez the last montreal canadians player to score more than 80 points in a season oh geez the last Montreal Canadiens player to score more than 80 points in a season oh man he used to play for the Rangers he used to play for the Rangers uh geez uh do we have to go back like I was originally thinking

I have to like think back like five years like are we have to go back? I was originally thinking I have to think back five years. Do we have to think back 15 years? He won the Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers. Oh, my God. Alex Kovalev. Alex Kovalev is the last Montreal Canadiens player. When I read that in an article, I just didn't know that off the top of my head. I knew the Habs had the best centers and they hadn't had like you know i you know

patch ready had some good goal scoring seasons for them they had a guy like thomas placanich that put up points but yeah the last guy and and this makes sense now when you think about like okay well they're gonna take a shot on line A because they need those dynamic individual offensive players. The question now is, can Patrick line A provide them that? Yeah, that's a wild piece of trivia there. I think it makes sense more when you say it out loud, but to think that they've gone 18 years or whatever, 18, 19 years or whatever it is,

that long without that. That's almost before the salary gap. That's a long time, and we've been seeing this increase in scoring. Even in Vancouver, we've had some rough seasons. We've had some good seasons since then as well, but if you think of all the players that have done more than 80 points, you think about the Sedins and Elias Pettersson and JT Miller and how many did Quinn Hughes have last year he was like almost 100 points right like it is crazy that they've they've

struggled to have individual scoring like that and I think that probably makes sense for a line but do you do you think he's up for the job there do you think he's up for the pressure um i think i i'm gonna give a little bit of the benefit of the doubt just because i'd like to see it and i'll be honest i'm kind of speaking that into existence a little bit i think there is the like obviously there'll be microscope and pressure, but also Laine is also the guy, I think when he's at his best, he doesn't really care what other people think.

And so if he kind of gets back on track and can embrace a bit of that attitude, maybe it'll be happening. So I'll be clear. I'm just saying this because I think it would be a fun story. So I don't, I'm not saying that with like full confidence, but like I'm just kind of like I think it would be a fun story. So I don't, I'm not saying that with like full confidence, but like, I'm just kind of like half speaking into existence because it would be a fun story to track.

Let's put it. I think it would be an inspiring story to track. Exactly. Yeah. Oh yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. So,

um, what's going on with the predators goaltending situation? Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's obviously talked about, but it's funny. Like that was that kind of,

I think that story originally came out and we thought that was going to be the big news of the day yesterday. And then we had all the other stuff happen. It's, I mean, they have, they've been kind of, they've been shopping or like not so quietly looking at ways to move askerov since the 2023 draft in nashville

um it was one of those things where it's like since barry trotz came in askerov's name has instantly become more and more available um in trade talks and trotz was always kind of like trying to slow play it and everything and um the player himself has been posturing himself for this spot from the beginning too. Obviously, you guys know full well in Vancouver how much power Dan Milstein has in making moves happen. Askarov switched to Milstein and Goldstar last June around the same time that Trotz started kind of putting his name out there

and kind of in conversation. So it's kind of one of those, like, we had this kind of long-term, under-the-surface staring match probably between Askarov and Trotz about where things were going to go. And then once the Predators signed Soros to the eight-year extension on July 1, once they signed Scott Wedgwood to a two-year deal to basically effectively block any chance of an Askarov-Soros tandem this year, that's when the player just kind of reached the point of,

hey, I'm an NHL-ready goalie, in his mind, and I need to go. That's kind of where we are right now, where I'm interested to see whether they're bluffing on the, he will or won't report to the AHL. That's, that's a real, that's going to be a really interesting play to see where this goes. But, if you had told me, ask her I'll finish the season with the predators a month ago, I wouldn't have believed you. And I still think that's the case,

but now instead of this being a january february piece of business it feels like now it's something you got to get done in the next six weeks to avoid all chaos and additional calls like this and six months of out loud conversations like we're having right now what kind of role do you think he's hoping for like is he ready for a 1a 1b thing because he's been like a hyped up goalie prospect for a while now. Yeah, and I just did like our top goalie prospect rankings over at EP Rankside and Elite Prospects, and I have him at number one. Between him, it was a big – I went back and forth several times

between him and Jesper Wallstead to see who would be number one. And it really came down to at the end where I think Wallstead is the more certain goalie. Askarov is the, has more of the tools in the wild card to be the guy who could be a truly great number one if he kind of gets it all together. Like I was talking to a bunch of NHL goalie coaches and as one put it pretty

eloquently, Askarov is a bit of a hotheadie coaches, and as one put it pretty eloquently, Askarov is a bit of a hothead. Walsh can be a bit lazy. Whoever figures it out first will have a better NHL career. And we've seen that with Askarov. We've seen him go all world. We've seen him completely steal games. I've watched him a handful of times in person in Milwaukee when he's played when they've come through Michigan here where I'm based.

And there's times where he looks like best goalie in the world type stuff. But then there's also times where he can get emotionally built up and struggles early and then it all snowballs. So he's someone who I personally don't think he's ready for a number one job in the NHL right now. I think it's, but I think a team that had a, a team that would be willing to have a bit of the patience to bring him in as a one B and with the full understanding that you're going to have to kind of help him build up that kind of mental fortitude to kind of use all those tools. I think that's where he would be ready to be in the NHL.

But as a, as the guy right now, I don't think he's there right now. I think it's, he can play in the NHL and it's great, but he, to me, it's the, if you're a team, you need to make sure that you're bringing them into a spot where you got like a, you've got a tandem that you can bringing them into a spot where you've got a tandem that you can play where you can have them. You can say, hey, we're going to give you 30-35 starts, but

if you want those 40-50 starts, you're going to have to prove it. I think that, to me, would be the best spot for Askarov now. I don't know, maybe I'm just thinking random goalie charts off of it. Maybe a team like if Carolina hadn't re-signed all of their goalies, you'd be like, oh, Carolina would be a good fit. Carolina re-signed every random goalie charts off of it. Maybe a team like... If Carolina hadn't re-signed all of their goalies, you'd be like, oh, Carolina would be a good fit.

But Carolina re-signed every single goalie. You're like, that doesn't make sense. I don't know, maybe like a Utah or something like that. Now I know they've got two guys, but if you're looking at long-term... To me, that is the best path to success for Askarov next year is somewhere where he can be part of a tandem and be told from the front that, hey, you're battling whoever's,

this is a job to win, and you can win it against the other guy. Just out of curiosity, did Artur Stilov make your top 15, or did he play his way out of that list because he played too many games? He is still out. So for our list, you have to be Calder Trophy eligible. So he is technically eligible for the Calder Trophy, so he is on the list. And I had him at number nine on the list for our top 15.

And so for the quick clarification so people know, it is not best goalie as they are right now. I typically, when I do go through these rankings and build this out, it's at the end of the day, if you could have a magic, if you could have a crystal ball and look back, who had the best NHL career? And so that is how I kind of look at it. So I want to be clear on that because someone might say,

he loves him at nine and they're like, well, he's better than some of the other guys right now on that list. And he certainly is better than some of those guys on the list right now. But this is a long-term prospecting who will have the best NHL career type list, not a best goalies in the NHL right now moment amongst these young guys. Hey, Sean, I'm going to ask you a question that's a bit of a weird one, but it's for our show later on and it has to do with the Canucks. So I want to ask you this. Are there any UFA goalies out there that you could sign for cheap to provide a

bit of insurance? Right now? Like who would it be? Like today, like August 20th. Yeah, they're UFAs right now. There's Kevin Lankanen, I guess. Marty Jones. He's getting a little older.

Antti Ranta, is he still unsigned? It's not a long list, I don't think. Yeah, there's not right now. There is, let's see, like you think on, geez, who would even be still available this time? dallas signed magnus helberg the other day like he was one who not that he's uh not not that he's someone who would be like a like i thought that was a nice little like insurance signing by dallas not that he

moves the needle at all but that's uh so yeah, he signed the other day. I think, yeah, there's not much out there right now. Like, it's kind of, I mean, I think a lot of stuff got, I mean, last year, if this was the conversation last year, We had the whole conversation with – who was the Slovak goalie who ended up in a PTO with Carolina at one point. Can't remember his name right now. But we don't have many options like that right now. So you're kind of in the bed you made right now. Okay.

All right. I actually enjoyed that bit of like, oh, I don't really know, because it might be a factor for the Canucks, but you're going to have to keep listening to this show to understand what we're talking about. Sean, I really want to thank you for taking the time this morning.

Lots of topics to discuss. Enjoyed our conversation. Yeah. I don't know. It's always fun. You know what we get? I like that we actually have news to talk about because it's been kind of a weird... It would have been nice for people to space it out maybe over a couple days, but I

like that we actually have something to talk about as opposed to just trying to fill all of August like you probably have been for the two weeks prior. I've been on vacation, buddy. All right, Sean. Oh, there you go. Thanks, man.

We'll talk again later. Talk again. Bye. Bye. That was Sean Shapiro from EP Ringside. I got a couple names for you. What are you guys thinking of Martin Jones? Yeah, he's one of the guys out there. Local guy in North Vancouver.

Yeah, yeah. I actually kind of knew the list. It's like Kevin Lankin and Martin Jones and Auntie Ranta. Unless any of you guys are interested in Carter Hart. I don't think the Canucks play in the KHL last night. Okay, so why am I talking about this? Because Rick Dalywell is going to join us next. And he texted me yesterday and he said,

hey, I'm working on some Canucks stuff. And actually, like, I read his text in a whisper because it's more comfortable than when you're actually talking to him when he's yelling at you. You've got to prepare. And I said, is there any teases that you can provide me with so that we can, you know, like hype up your appearance in the first hour of the show?

And he said, well, make it goalie related. Make it goalie related. Which is never good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think Rick's going to have an update maybe on where Thatcher Demko is at this point of the offseason when it comes to his rehab. I don't think anyone should panic about this. I'm panicking.

Okay. I know Adog's already panicking. Oh, I'm panicking. Adog's like, can Lerker Ramaki play in goal? Like, I like him. I think he should be on the team. Maybe he's got a chance. Secretly a great goalie.

But we'll talk to Rick in just about 10 minutes. And again, I'm just trying to hype up this thing. But I think this might have people talking a little bit what Rick's going to share. Stressful. Stressful. That's the worst. I don't know. It's the worst.

If it is bad news. And hey, look, this isn't necessarily a... We'll see what Rick says. Maybe things... I don't want to imagine it. I just don't want that. I don't want to live in that world. I'm already going to like,

how do I make this optimistic in my head? Yeah. Which is. What's the date today? August 20th. August 20th. So when's the season start? We are about a month out from training camp.

Season starts, I believe it's October 9th, I want to say. Okay. Somewhere around there. So if you were to, okay, so you didn't know that Rick Dollywell was going to come in and talk about

the goalie situation. And I'm going to call it that. There's a goalie situation. There's a goalie situation. Okay. What would be your number one story heading into training camp?

It would probably just be like Pedersen, I guess. And whether or not he's got some. And whether or not he's going to,

yeah, like if he's still battling an injury because who knows. Or just the new guys going into training camp and Laker mackie i guess you're still gonna you're gonna call it an injury to petterson that's that's what it was right yeah if that's what he said that's all i can go off of okay we'll see and whether or not he has chemistry with debra yes like it would have been more like on ice storylines it wouldn't have been like oh man what how how much chaos is going to arise

from this situation right yeah i think it's going to be a really interesting training camp by the way like there might be some stress um but there are so many storylines to follow um and that includes like the big picture what are the canucks what's the focus going to be because we all know we all knew what the focus was, or we know in hindsight what the focus was last season. How many times did we say meet pressure with pressure? Like that was like, that was the thing, right?

And we also remember how much we talked about the start. The start. But that was it. That was related, right? Like it was like hashtag the start. Now that's, the start's still going to be important, but I think what the Canucks did

last season makes it a little – they did meet pressure with pressure, but now Rick Tockett is under the position of he's the reigning coach of the year and he can't just come back with the same. He's like, meet pressure with pressure again. The guys might be like, oh, you got anything else, Coach? What did you do this offseason? Meet pressure with more pressure, I guess.

So I think the challenge for the Canucks this training camp is you need to add some more creativity into your play. You need to create some more rush chances. You need to figure out the power play. That's going to be a big deal. I imagine there's going to be a lot of special teams practice in training camp and throughout the exhibition season, both with the power play and the PK because the Canucks lost some PKers. And then, so you're going to have that, but you also

don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. You don't want to be like, well, we got to create more often. So, you know, all that stuff I said about structure, forget about all that, right? Like they want to maintain that structure, but maybe tweak a little bit. And anyway, at any rate,

Rick Dollywall is going to join us next, perhaps, perhaps with an update on Thatcher Demko. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. The war is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season. Get your tickets now

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